Memory like an Elephant is true, they never forget—especially being burned by chili peppers.

Tanzanian farmers who are victims of rebounding Elephant populations invading their land and eating all the crops are thankful for that spicy fact.

According to Newser these giant Pachyderms are voracious eaters, consuming up to 660 pounds of food every day.

The dangers and prohibitive expense of electric fences warrant them useless, luckily an effective low-tech solution was found by the farmers: engine oil and chili peppers make up a brew that adheres to fences despite heavy rains.

Said Longwa, a local farmer, reported to the Wall Street Journal that, “[The Elephants] will it mull over and often circle two to three times. But once they get a real whiff of the chili, they snuffle and sneeze.”

Perfect solution: They leave.

The strategy of using the spicy brew is popular across Tanzania and other parts of East Africa: the fear is that the Elephants will become accustomed to the chili; so, according to Inquisitr, other approaches are being studied to cut the damage caused by the Elephants.

Setting out lines of beehives around the fields and installing radio collars on problematic Elephants is a couple of the methods being studied.

Lucas Malugu, and Elephant expert, told the Wall Street Journal that the Pachyderms hate bees flying up their trunks and stinging them, so beehive lines are being set up. When local villagers see an Elephant where they shouldn’t be, they “shake the hives to release the bees, sending the Elephants running.”

Picture courtesy of http://www.freenaturepictures.com/elephant-pictures.php